25 wishes for my future self

Turns out I am not immune to the movement of time – and even though I try to cling on to the present day after day, yet another year has passed me by and made me a tad older. Awkward, isn’t it? Slowly but surely, like everyone else, I lose a little bit of who I am to who I will be and my current self becomes my future self as well. Is it so bad? Well, probably not. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be good either.

So here I am, in the cheesiest of all cheese-fest blog posts, with my list of all the things I wish my future self does not abandon for the sake of progress; or, well, just forget all together (since I am one forgetful beast).

1. Your life will be good. Your life will be bad. Just don’t let it be boring

As it currently stands, I am obsessed with the idea of my life being wasted away to boredom. To lack of inspiration. To the old same-ishness.

Sure, we cannot make every second count, but could we make the whole count at the very least? I am not sure I could ever make a difference on a big scale; sometimes I am not sure I could ever make a difference for the people around me. But the only person I do owe making my life matter is myself. And that’s something I wish to stick to.

2. If you think you’re better than someone, well, odds are that you’re not

My pet peeve, alongside so-called nice guys (and girls), are people who find themselves infinitely better than others. If you do base your entire self-worth on comparison to others, you’re doing it wrong. You should value yourself for who you are, not for who you may be better than.

3. Being against something doesn’t make you something

Same goes for people who live to be against. Don’t get me wrong – I am guilty of doing this from time to time as much as any other person. But luckily I have left the days of ‘Look at me, I hate XXX so much’ long behind me and I hope my future self does all it can to stay away from this.

Hate is not an identity. You can define yourself by the things you believe in and aspire to be, not the things that you’d like to be gone from the surface of the Earth.

4. Don’t ever stop keeping a diary – you are too lazy to work on things that didn’t make it on to some to-do list

Just trust me on this one.

5. Quality of life has very little to do with money

There are just so many things you need more than an insanely well-paid job. Warmth would be one of them. Human contact. Free time to actually enjoy the things you splash out on. Sunshine. Hot chocolate. Stalking moggies two streets down.

Life is not free, but there is a healthy balance to be found.

6. Envy is bad

You don’t have the time and health and strength to waste it on craving a life that is not yours, but once you do get it, it won’t be anything like you have imagined it anyway.

7. Self-pity is worse

Feeling bad for yourself will not help you to achieve anything. It’ll just get you stuck in a position you so despise, with no chance of any rapid recovery.

8. Get yourself a bunny, seriously

I mean… Come on. Your blog is called BUNNIES are magic. So are all your social media profiles. Your Instagram needs you to take some action, woman!

And while we are on this topic, add a pug called (Mr) Archibald Pugson to the list too.

9. Other people’s freedom is as important as yours

Whatever you want, whatever you set yourself to achieve, whatever you need from your life, never forget to make sure it does not obstruct others. You have no right to demand anything from others, unless there is some legal reason for you to do this. Other people do not belong to you.

10. Other people’s lives are none of your business

Dear future self, do not become one of those people. Do not go around judging others for things that do not concern you. Not because you don’t know them or you don’t have a right to… I mean, anyone can judge anyone else without any grounds and even though these judgments can be painful, they are ok to express. It is just a waste of time, and energy, and it will make you bitter and unhappy.

This strongly applies to points 2 and 3. These attitudes will also make you insanely miserable.

11. But your life is none of their business either

Even if you are the most compliant doormat in the world, people will judge you. They have a right to, even if their judgments are incorrect or biased.

Do not care.

You’ll have labels; that’s how we process information and observations, by putting labels on things. Learn to ignore them or learn to embrace them. Just do not let them put doubt in yourself.

12. Rest is important

You have a tendency to push yourself way past all of your safety limits. Don’t. Once you’re broken, you take way more time to recover than you would have spent having a little rest.

14. There is nothing embarrassing about the things you may want

15. Try to accept yourself, somehow

You are what you are and you are stuck with it. There is no re-roll on the genetic lottery. Sure, you can improve and you should improve; after all quite a lot of things with you are… not exactly good. But the very essence of who you are is there to stay. Embrace it.

16. Yet never forget you may be wrong

Revolutions are not for you; you should never stick to one cause and one passion, because you should always remember you can be wrong.

You probably are, according to me. You, my future self, can believe in things I never even imagined putting my name against. Yet after you there will be another future self, and another, and they all may laugh at us that used to be.

No one is omniscient. Not even you.

17. You are not a coward or a bore if you pick a safe instead of a sorry

If you’re still anything like me, you’re quite a chicken; you are so so so cautious it is kind of funny to watch. But it’s alright. It helps you, you know? You don’t burn in the sun, you don’t arrive late for planes, don’t usually lose anything… With a little bit of luck, you’ll survive almost anything.

18. You’re stubborn – and that’s a good thing sometimes

19. Please learn how to give up!

Although your stubbornness lets you achieve quite a lot, sometimes it can be a bit of a… burden. You don’t know when to quit. You don’t know when to abandon a lost cause. And I swear, one day this will be the thing that kills you if we both don’t do something about it.

20. Always try to venture outside of your comfort zone

Out in the wild you will find things you will suck at but weirdly love, things that will disgust you at first but then they’ll make you fall in love with them, you’ll find laughter and tears, you’ll burn, but you may also rediscover yourself somehow.

Don’t wait for the world around you to change. It won’t if you won’t try to change it yourself.

21. Though make sure you do have a home somewhere

22. Making things pretty or interesting is not useless

One of the saddest things about the society we all happen to live in is how little value is put on things being aesthetically pleasing in comparison to cutting costs. We seem to live only to generate someone else’s profit. That’s not what I want to be a part of. That’s not something you should be a part of.